Grave digging: Teesta files for bail

Activist Teesta Setalwad has filed an anticipatory bail plea before a fast-track court in Godhra in connection with a case of exhuming the bodies of the 2002 riots victims at Panderwada in the Panchmahals district in which five persons,including her former aide Rais Khan Pathan who has now fallen out with her,were arrested earlier.

Activist Teesta Setalwad has filed an anticipatory bail plea before a fast-track court in Godhra in connection with a case of exhuming the bodies of the 2002 riots victims at Panderwada in the Panchmahals district in which five persons,including her former aide Rais Khan Pathan who has now fallen out with her,were arrested earlier.

Setalwad,who is the secretary of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP),filed the bail plea on January 27 through her lawyer A A Hassan.

Earlier,Rais Khan,formerly with the CJP,had given a confessional statement reportedly saying that Setalwad too was involved in digging up the graves of riot victims without informing the police and the administration.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for January 31. She came here on January 27 and filed her anticipatory bail plea in the Third Fast-Track Court of Judge V D Parmar, said a lawyer at Godhra,requesting anonymity.

On December 13 last year,the court had issued warrants against Rais Khan and four others,who were then arrested and produced before the court.

Rais Khan,who is also facing charges of fabricating affidavits and evidence given by the 2002 riots victims and their families,had earlier claimed he did so at Setalwads behest.

On December 3,a special fast-track court in Ahmedabad rejected his plea to become a witness in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case.